Applying Elementary Teaching Principles to World Behavior: Fairness

The first
principle I set down was fairness. As many times as we've heard the expression,
"Life isn't fair!" I suspect we wish strongly this were not so. Witness our
feelings at the end of a story where justice is done, and how we cheer the
underdog who suffers throughout, yet somehow receives justice in one form or
another. We all want fairness--and surely look strangely at anyone who doesn't
proclaim to want it--so why not keep fairness high on the list, when envisioning
the future of a world we want to live in?

"Mr. Geery, Sammy
isn't being fair!"

"Mr. Geery, that's
NOT FAIR!"

"Mr. Geery,
You're not fair!"

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How many times
have teachers heard such proclamations? It feels like infinite to me. Most kids
have an innate sense of fairness, which arrives at an early age. Many studies
have been done that support this conclusion, though anyone who's worked around
kids, or has their own, hardly needs to be told this.

Still, as if to prove the
point, here's an edited version of a study I recently read about. [Note: I am chopping
quotes liberally for readability, though I try hard to retain the essence of
them.] "Feb. 15, 2011: Adults may want to take a lesson from young
children who've demonstrated that even at the early age of three, children have
a sense of what's fair.... The study found that children shared with each other
after working together to earn a reward, even in circumstances where it would
have been easy for one child to keep all of the prize without sharing.... prizes
such as gummy bears and stickers... the children almost always shared equally,
according to the study published in the February issue of the journal Psychological Science . "We
were surprised that this rule was so strict -- that equality was so strongly
preferred," Felix Warneken of Harvard
University said in a journal
news release."

I certainly DO suggest that adults take this lesson from
kids, since it is unfairness that provokes so much--if not most--of the trouble
we see in the world today. Trouble that could be promptly eliminated, if more
people believed in, practiced, worked for, lived and breathed a bit more
fairness in their daily behavior.

In the U.S.,
we can trace unfairness into the mists of antiquity, starting at least with the
European domination of Native Americans. Or how about this write-up on the
lighting of the torch of the Statue of Liberty, our alleged symbol of fairness
to all: "No members of the general public
were permitted on the island during the ceremonies, which were reserved
entirely for dignitaries. The only females granted access were Bartholdi's wife
and de Lesseps's granddaughter; officials stated that they feared women might
be injured in the crush of people. The restriction offended area suffragists, who chartered a boat and got as
close as they could to the island. The group's leaders made speeches applauding
the embodiment of Liberty
as a woman and advocating women's right to vote.

"Shortly
after the dedication, the Cleveland Gazette suggested that the statue's torch not be lit until
the United States became a
free nation "in reality": "Liberty
enlightening the world", indeed! The expression makes us sick. This
government is a howling farce. It can not or rather does not protect
its citizens within its own borders.
Shove the Bartholdi statue, torch and all, into the ocean until the
"liberty" of this country is such as to make it possible for an inoffensive
and industrious colored man to earn a respectable living for himself and
family, without being "ku-kluxed", perhaps murdered, his daughter and
wife outraged, and his property destroyed. The idea of the "liberty"
of this country "enlightening the world", or even Patagonia,
is ridiculous in the extreme.

The above comes
from Wikipedia, whilst meanwhile, the words the statue supposedly stands for most
of us learned in grade school: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teamming ashore. Send
these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden
door!"

I believe we have a few light years to go in the department of
fairness, though I hope for a paradigm shift that brings it about with
lightning speed. Fairness, according to dictionary.com, means "free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice, as in
'a fair decision,' or 'a fair judge,' or 'each person is treated fairly, with no
favoritism.'" And we wonder why people "go postal,"
as if the answer isn't staring us in the face.

How about "bias," a term intimately related
to fairness and the way we treat fellow humans, particularly those from other countries,
females, or kids: "a particular tendency or inclination, especially one that
prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question." One factor that attracted
me to science was the supposed absence of bias, the extension of logic and
objectivity to phenomena we can observe. That we have been having a mad rush in
the opposite direction, to the point that politicians now boast about being
"anti-science," makes me cringe. I thought we left "the dark ages" a few
centuries ago, but it appears we are back in the midst of them. Creating
"fairness" as a guiding light, we just might acquire a vision that incorporates
what knowledge and wisdom that humans have learned through the ages, rather
than slamming those commodities in a closet.

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It's hard to imagine that favoritism and
bias could become more rampant and rank than what we hear from lunatics who
have confiscated public airwaves; the Becks, Limbaughs, Hannitys, Trumps, Tea
Partiers, and so on. The open, blatant attack on fairness can do nothing but
worsen the burden on those already suffering. Yes, there will be "blowback."
Are we not already seeing it, with folks kicked out of their homes, a growing loss
of jobs, people dying by the thousands from lack of healthcare?

The unequal distribution of wealth and
opportunity for humans in the U.S.
today is staggering beyond comprehension. This unfairness is to no one's
advantage, even to the wealthy, who could only benefit from educated,
productive minds, capable of solving our copious problems. Much of what
astounds me is that so many of the wealthy don't seem to grasp this simple
concept: All our advances in technology, medicine, our understanding of life on
earth--well, everything that brought us benefits we have today--are the result of
active, engaged, curious, educated individuals, who had a minimum of food on
their table and a roof over their head. Failure to fight for more of this, for
the advancement of our species, for a habitable planet, for caring about our
progeny and successive generations, is nothing, if not ignorance incarnated.

The more sensible and
intelligent amongst us are now calling for fairness even to nature, as many others
have done for decades. An article today was titled: On
Earth Day, Recognize the Rights of Mother Earth . The article notes
that " thanks to some innovative thinking by
governments, municipalities and indigenous peoples, a wiser mindset is taking
hold. And the United Nations has also begun to consider the rights of nature. This
may be the first step toward the adoption of a Declaration on the Rights of
Mother Earth. A companion piece to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights
[arguably the most important documents ever written, http://www.wunrn.com/reference/pdf/univ_dec_hum_right.pdf, emphasizing fairness amongst humans], this emerging declaration
-- which would be backed by enforceable laws around the world -- seeks to
redefine our human relationship with all other species from one of dominance to
one of harmony. Many places have already begun to change their laws in
accordance with this new way of thinking."

In my run for U.S. Senate against Utah's Orrin Hatch, I posted many progressive ideas and principles that I internalized over the years. I'm leaving that site up indefinitely, since it describes what I believe most members of our species truly (more...)